The Kitchener-Waterloo area has always been a beautiful and diverse place to live. It’s big enough for varied employment and investing opportunities and of course, education options. It’s also small enough to have a close-knit community feel with great neighbourhoods. Minutes from farmer’s markets, close enough to the GTA and active arts events – why live anywhere else?
The past few years, especially, have seen an explosion of new businesses, jobs, developments, and real estate opportunities—not just in the downtown core, however, but across the entire region. These are exciting times!
Here are four reasons why living and investing in the KW area is better than ever:
Transit
Getting around Kitchener-Waterloo is about to get easier. We’re finally seeing LRT test vehicles in KW, with more testing planned for this summer. The full launch of the LRT with all 14 Ion vehicles is expected in December 2018.
While getting to and from the GTA is still a traffic-jam challenge, progress is evident and easing the pain of the journey. GO service between Kitchener and Toronto has doubled to four morning trains and four afternoon trains, with full-day two-way GO service planned for 2024. Early plans for a high speed rail line connecting Toronto to Windsor are being evaluated which, if implemented, would make the commute between KW and the GTA much more bearable – all the more reason to live and invest here.
Better transit within the region and connecting to other communities adds incentive for more people to move to the KW area, and allows those living here more employment options beyond the regional boundaries.
Technology
Each year, the KW’s status as a tech hub is further solidified, with more companies and start-ups bringing new jobs, revitalizing old buildings, and firmly placing KW on the map.
The region’s tech sector is the third largest in Canada behind only Toronto and Montreal. Last year, Waterloo Region was named Canada’s fastest growing tech talent market, adding 8,400 tech jobs. Twelve of the 20 top Canadian tech companies are from Ontario’s Toronto-KW corridor and six tech companies in the Waterloo Region were recently named in Deloitte’s Fast 50.
Companies we’ve highlighted in the past like Communitech (downtown Kitchener and soon to be on Willis Way), Google (the old Breithaupt building in downtown Kitchener), Catalyst 137 (near Belmont Village), plus Shopify (Seagram’s Barrel Yards in Uptown Waterloo), are all calling KW home with ripple effects on nearby business and neighbourhoods.
You don’t have to work in the tech sector to benefit from its boost to the region. With so many tech businesses located in or near downtown, condo developments are surging like never before and neighbourhoods close to buildings like Google and Catalyst 137 are being re-energized.
Going Green
Getting people out of their cars has environmental benefits while helping ease traffic in KW. A pilot project is adding about five km of temporary separated bike lanes in Uptown Waterloo. If successful, the Region will consider making the lanes permanent.
Kitchener is installing more than 16,000 energy-efficient streetlights to create a network of smart sensors as part of a region-wide effort to save energy (and money).
Local organizations like Reep Home Solutions are helping local residents reduce their household greenhouse gas emissions and improve storm-water management throughout the region.
With innovation becoming one of the KW’s best assets, developing creative new green initiatives goes hand-in-hand with technological advances driven by local businesses and community members. Think Europe.
Events
The development of LOT42–a massive, 17-acre, multi-use site space located on Ardelt Place in Kitchener– brings opportunities for large-scale events like conventions, concerts and art exhibits that we may not have been able to accommodate in the past. The space will host Communitech’s True North Waterloo, which brings together entrepreneurs, innovators and policy makers to discuss “tech as a force for good in the world”.
Smaller, more intimate events are being held across the region at places like microbreweries such as TWB Co-operative Brewing and Red Circle Brewery (coming soon to Catalyst 137).
Like we’ve said before, KW is growing and evolving at what seems sometimes like lightning pace. Each new initiative and venture brings opportunities for investments and a chance to look at underdeveloped neighbourhoods in a new light.
Stay tuned for more insights on the real estate market in the KW area.
